On the anniversary of Made in L.A.'s premiere, we are pleased to present a new, important tool based on Made in L.A.

This 2-DVD Toolkit contains Made in L.A., six new video modules and a comprehensive 100-page discussion guide, all designed to help educators, worker centers, community and faith-based organizations, nonprofits, unions and other organizations serving low-wage, often immigrant, workers in the United States.

For more details and to order visit the the Toolkit Page (Thanks to the generousity of the Ford Foundation, which supported the creation of this toolkit, FREE COPIES are available to Worker Centers in the US!)

Learn more in this video!:

Lanzamos el Kit de Recursos para Educación y Organización de Made in L.A.!

En el anniversario de la premier de Made in L.A., estamos felices de presentar una nueva heramienta basada en Made in L.A.

The other nine filmsare extraordinary: Stanley Nelson's Freedom Riders, Jay Rosenstein's The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today, Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz's The Interrupters, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's The Most Dangerous Man in America, Shola Lynch's Chisholm '72 Unbought and Unbossed, Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer's Brother Outsider, George Stoney, Judith Helfand and Susanne Rostock's The Uprising of '34, Robert Epstein's The Times of Harvey Milk, and Barbara Kopple's Harlan County, USA.

We encourage you to watch the trailers at BillMoyers.com and to use the films as part of the fight for social justice.

We're glad to announce that we're collaborating with Ecuador's National Secretary of the Migrant to screen Made in L.A. in their outreach and education work as part of the campaign ‘We are all migrants." The campaign's goal is the respect to migrants' rights, sensitizing communities that produce migrants and the societies they travel to.

Made in L.A. will be presented in community centers and schools throughout Ecuador, accompanied by forums around the subject. It will also travel in a "mobile cinema truck" along with plays, fotography and music, which will reach hundreds of Ecuadorian communities, including very vulnerable populations.

We're thrilled to announce that Made in L.A. will be featured in MASS MoCA's upcoming exhibition "The Workers". The exhibition, which runs from May 29, 2011-April 14 2012, explores what work "is like today in a global economy marked by outsourcing, rapid migration, disruptive economies, and a state of labor that seems fractured, precarious, and almost invisible..." The exhibition includes video, sculpture, photography, and performance art and we're pleased to be in the company of fellow filmmakers Vicky Funari and Sergio de la Torre whose wonderful film Maquilapolis will also be screened.

Made in L.A.screened at MASS MoCA once before, as part of Working Films' "Content + Intent" Documentary Institute. We're thrilled to be back, and we agree with the curators that hosting this exhibit at MASS MoCA could not be more fitting: "Once the site of a bustling factory itself -- whose closure in the face of intense international competition left nearly a third of its community out of work -- MASS MoCA is perhaps uniquely positioned to present this timely show. The history of North Adams' workers mirrors that of many in the United States and abroad today who have lost a way of life to the perennial hunt for cheaper labor, even while the low-wage workers who replaced them have just begun to organize for more rights and better working conditions..."

Visit MASS MoCA's website for all the details. Special thanks to the co-curators of the exhibition, artist Carla Herrera-Prats and MASS MoCA curator Susan Cross!

Today we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and mourn its 146 victims, who perished when they couldn't escape a fire in their factory because exit doors were locked. The tragic event in Lower Manhattan focused the nation's attention on the conditions faced by immigrant garment workers and galvanized efforts for reform. Tragically, dangerous sweatshop conditions continue to exist today, both in the United States (as seen in Made in L.A.) and overseas, and immigrant workers remain particularly vulnerable.

We invite you to explore a number of sites that commemorate the fire and explore its impact on the country and the labor movement:

We're thrilled to announce that Made in L.A. will be re-broadcast on Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 10pm on PBS' Global Voices series, which is presented by ITVS. At a time when immigration and low wage work continue to dominate the news, we're excited that Made in L.A. will again be available to viewers across the country, and especially that it will air during Latino Heritage Month.

Made in L.A. will air on PBS WORLD, which is a digital channel that many public television stations offer. For more information about the broadcast and to check local listings, visit the PBS Global Voices page for Made in L.A.

We're thrilled that Made in L.A. is featured as one of four films that Sojourners is highlighting as part of its "Movie Night for Arizona" initiative, which encourages members to use film to explore the relationship between faith and immigration. In their "REEL Images of Immigration" toolkit they explain:

We invite you to be a part of educating Christians about the realities of the immigrant experience in our country and about our biblical mandate to treat them justly...

...Immigration and migration issues have affected societies throughout history. Through several modern films, we have the opportunity to examine different situations immigrants and their families face in our current day and age. Hosting a discussion after the film, which allows people to process, share, and act on what they saw, is a great way to educate yourself and your community about the need for immigration reform...

The other films included in the initiative are Dying to Live, The Visitor and Farmingville, all of which shed light on different aspects of the immigrant experience in the United States. We encourage you to visit the Movie Guide at FaithAndImmigration.org, and to consider screening Made in L.A. or one of the other great films in this initiative!

We wanted to reach out to our community to express our support for immigrants rights in Arizona, and our shock about the anti-immigrant bill – Senate Bill 1070 – that has just passed.

Many of you have hosted screenings of Made in L.A. in support of immigrants rights and immigration reform, and we wanted to take this opportunity to share links from several organizations that we have partnered with over the last few years:

We wanted to highlight Breakthrough's "Restore Fairness" campaign, which is using video and multi-media tools to draw attention to the lack of due process in the immigration detention system. Their work is very important and is closely related to the work that we've been doing to use Made in L.A. to tell the human stories of immigrant workers and to build support for immigration reform. Here's a video about their campaign:

As we started to explore the "Restore Fairness" site, we were moved to tears by Juana Villegas' story, and by everything it reveals about due process, the flawed 287g program that empowers local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws, and the issues women face on a daily basis. We hope you'll take a moment to watch this video and to explore Breakthrough's call to action below:

Since the Declaration of Independence, America has striven to uphold human rights ideals like fairness and due process. However, in the aftermath of 9-11, the government often arrests people without warrants, holds them in inhumane detention conditions, and deports them without a fair trial.

Join us by taking action now. Because when we let the government deny due process and human rights for some people, we put all of our freedoms at risk.

1. Watch "Restore Fairness".2. Tell Congress to restore fairness right now.3. Sign up for updates so you can continue to take actions that support fair immigration.4. Become an ally by signing the pledge and get featured on the home page.5. Spread the word by announcing "Restore Fairness" to friends, on your website/blog, twitter, facebook and email signature. (Watch a powerful video #Restore Fairness and take action to fix a broken immigration system).6. Leave your comments on the video and blog.

Last month Lupe and Joann (stars in Made in L.A.!) went to Vancouver for two Made in L.A. screenings at the University of British Columbia (UBC), organized by Sociology Professor Jennifer Chun. I met Jennifer last March at a Ford Foundation-sponsored conference on Low-Wage Work, Migration and Gender in Chicago, where we screened Made in L.A. Jennifer decided the Vancouver community needed to see the film and she single handedly fundraised and organized to bring Lupe, Joann and me to Canada. At the last minute I wasn't able to go, but Joann wrote a few words to share with the Made in L.A. community:

Jennifer Chun, Joann, Joann's son Dylan and Lupe at one of the presentations

"The first day's screening was at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, which houses amazing art, sculptures, and other artifacts of the native peoples of British Columbia. The audience definitely liked "Made in L.A." and had good questions about the industry, organizing, and race relations. The second day's screening was in a theater at Simon Fraser University, and since this day's event was publicized to the community, the room was packed! People had to sit in the aisles. And they loved "Made in L.A." They gave it a standing ovation at the end.

We also learned a little bit about Vancouver during the Q&A and from Jennifer. There are still sweatshops -little factories and home work-in Vancouver. Vancouver is about 40% immigrant (if I remember what Jennifer told me correctly)--from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and now more from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, the Middle East, and other areas of the world. Groups are organizing in immigrant communities, such as Justicia for Immigrants and another center for education.

We had a great time in Vancouver. I took my 14-month-old son Dylan along. Jennifer was really gracious and took us around the city, including a stop at Cafe Rhizome where we had delicious food and dessert. One of the owners of the cafe was a long-time organizer with Mujeres Unidas y Activas in San Francisco. Thank you to Jennifer and to all the organizations that co-sponsored the screenings!"

This event was sponsored by: UBC Department of Sociology, UBC Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian studies (INSTRCC), St. John's College, UBC Centre for Women's and Gender Studies, SFU Latin American Studies Program, SFU Department of Geography, Hospital Employees' Union (HEU), Vancouver District Labour Council, Pacific Northwest Labour History Association, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, UBC School and Regional Planning Program (SCARP), UBC Department of Anthropology, UBC Centre for CrossFaculty Inquiry in Education (CCFI), UBC Law and Society Program, SFU Women's Studies Department, UBC Department of Geography, Justicia for Migrant Workers, No One is IllegalVancouver, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE).

In October we headed to St Louis, MO, for a few events organized by the Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates (MIRA) and the St Louis Interfaith Committee on Latin America (IFCLA) including a fundraiser for both groups that was held at Bethel Lutheran Church. Gilbert Bailon, the Editorial Page Editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch provided opening remarks and the spirited post-screening discussion was moderated by Rebecca Rivas of The St. Louis American.

The following day, Professor Joel Jennings hosted a Community Screening of Made in L.A. at St. Louis University in an event that was supported by the US Census. The auditorium was packed with students, and we had a vibrant Q & A.

On the third day, we had a great screening at UMSL, where Robert's sister Sonya is a professor and directs the Center for Neurodynamics. The event was organized by Deborah Cohen, from the Department of History and the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies.